Tuesday, January 8, 2008

Office Phone Systems

I'm a technology manager for a small professional services firm with about 50 employees and we're currently going through the process of upgrading our phone system. The process sucks--phone system manufacturers are still in the dark ages, haven't a clue how to design software and the local dealers are still pining for the deals of dealing with the big-haired "telephone lady".

My company is located in the Eastern Massachusetts area, with a mix of technology sophisticated users and clueless ones. Mostly everyone is on a PC but we support about 10 Macs for creative users. Presenting a professional appearance is critical to us--we have 2 receptionists and senior executives phones must be personally answered at all times. Overall, we don't ask for a lot from a phone system. Ring, answer, cover, page, voice mail. You'd think that a phone system would exist that does this.

In this blog, I've changed some of the names. I hate to single out our local Avaya dealer as being particularly incompetent. I suspect that they all are equally clueless. If you'd like more details on the specifics, contact me privately.